PV Narasimha Rao: News

PV Narasimha Rao was an Indian politician and lawyer who was the ninth Prime Minister of India from 1991-1996. He was the first Prime Minister to be elected from South India and the second holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region. Rao was also referred to as the ‘Father of Indian Economic Reforms,’ as he was responsible for reversing the economic policies of the Rajiv Gandhi government. Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued to follow the policies of economic reform that were pioneered by Rao. In his early days, Rao served as a freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement. Later, he joined the Indian National Congress as a full-time politician. In 1971, he was appointed as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. During his tenure as India’s Prime Minister, Rao marked a paradigm shift from the mixed and industrializing economic model to a market-driven one. He has also helped in steering India through the 1991 economic crisis and established diplomatic relations with Israel. His term saw the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the destruction of Ayodhya’s Babri Mosque. Rao passed away in 2004 due to a heart attack.